Does the Ureteroscopy has Beneficial Advantages for Urethral Stricture Evaluation: A Prospective Single Center Study

Author(s): Abdikarim Hussein Mohamed, Hussein Ali Mohamud

Objectives: To assess the beneficial benefits of ureteroscopy for the evaluation and assessment of urethral stricture at the time of operation.

Method: Data of all admitted patients with urethral stricture detected on urethrography and uroflowmetry preoperatively that also confirmed with ureteroscopy at intraoperative period using a 7F ureteroscope who underwent direct vision internal urethrotomy from 2019-2020 were prospectively reviewed at Mogadishu Somali turkey training and research hospital. Based on ureteroscopic results, patients were classified into three different groups: Completely obliterated urethral stricture, very small caliber urethral stricture, and small-caliber urethral stricture. All patients with urethral stricture less than 18 years, patients with hypospadias surgery, patients requiring urethroplasty, bladder neck stenosis, and meatal stenosis were excluded from the study.

Results: The total patients analyzed were 82 cases. After assessment and evaluation of the stricture with the ureteroscope under direct vision intraoperatively, completely obliterated urethral stricture were seen in 8.5% of the cases, very mall caliber urethral stricture was encountered in 53.65% of the cases while small-caliber urethral stricture was seen in 37.8% of the cases. Successful passage of semi-rigid ureteroscopes was reached in 90.24% of the cases.

Conclusion: Ureteroscopic evaluation of urethral stricture has a higher accuracy rate for confirmation and estimation of location, length, and severity of stricture at the intraoperative period and provides additional beneficial information despite preoperative radiologic assessments.